Of Roses And A Chessboard
by warugiriia
Summary: Kyrie and Rosa manage to form an unexpected bond during the annual family conferences, though perhaps that bond has grown stronger than intended by either of them... Kyrie x Rosa / Kyrosa.


_Hey guys! It's me, the admin again, with a fic about another yuri otp of mine, this time Kyrie x Rosa. I actually really ship them even though they're not a very popular ship (barely anyone ships them haha). But well my crush ships them too so yeah I was kind of thinking of that particular human being when I wrote this. And to everyone else, if you don't like this ship, then please don't comment any hate. Enjoy. :)_

* * *

 ** _Of Roses and a Chessboard_**

Truth be told, Rosa hated the family conferences. Sure, it was a great time for Maria to meet her cousins and have fun and whatnot, but _she_ had to subject herself to the torture of seeing her siblings again. At least there was _one_ person who was always nice to her. Kyrie Sumadera, who married her brother Rudolf after his first wife Asumu died, had been nothing but pleasant towards her from day one. Sure, Hidedyoshi nii-san was nice to her as well, but they had nothing in common at all. Natsuhi nee-san was incredibly difficult to speak to. Even Asumu nee-san hadn't exactly bothered speaking to her much. Only Kyrie ever did.

Rosa honestly would've died of boredom at the conferences had Kyrie not been there. She genuinely did like Kyrie. Very much. She'd wanted to meet up with her outside of the family gatherings many times over the years, but never did work up the nerve to. Which meant the only time she got to see her was during the conference. Speaking of the conference, this year, much to her surprise, Battler-kun had made an appearance after 6 years. She'd nearly forgotten how he was like. Nearly. Battler was just as spirited as he was 6 years ago, laughing energetically and poking fun at Jessica. It sure looked like this year's conference was gonna be super lively.

A few hours later, the family had eaten lunch together, exchanged small talk (or in Eva's case, dropped many sly insults towards Rosa), the children headed out to play at the beach while the adults gathered around the living room to talk about more... pressing matters. Eva and Rudolf began pressuring Krauss about the inheritance, while Natsuhi got worked up. It was like this every year. No one even _noticed_ when Rosa quietly excused herself to leave the room and all the tension her siblings had formed.

* * *

Out of sheer curiousity, Rosa went to go look for the children. She knew that she was much too old to join them in their fun, though sometimes she _did_ watch them wistfully and wish she'd had that kind of fun (or even had any companions at all, for that matter) in her youth. Rosa stepped out of the mansion and inhaled the cool, fresh air of the rose garden, breathing in the calming fragrant aroma of the roses.

"Uu, Mama!" The sound of her daughter Maria happily calling for her reached her ears.

"Maria!" She responded, clearly surprised. "Why aren't you down at the beach yet?"

"Uu, Battler misplaced the mat, so it took a while longer while he looked for it." Maria explained.

Speaking of the devil, Battler jogged up to Rosa, grinning widely. "Yo, Rosa oba-san! What are you doing here?" He asked.

"Ahh, I couldn't stand the atmosphere in there any longer, so I came out here to take a walk." She explained, returning his grin with a pretty smile of her own.

"You're alone?" Battler asked, raising his red eyebrows. Rosa nodded in affirmation. A surge of pity gripped Battler.

"Well, would you like to have a game of chess with me?" He asked. It was Rosa's turn to raise her eyebrows.

"Chess?" She repeated.

"Yeah! But be warned, I'm veeeery good, ihihi~" Battler grinned.

Rosa shook her head. "It was nice of you to offer, Battler-kun. But I'm afraid that I'm terrible at chess. Besides, you should spend more time with your cousins, right?" The gesture did warm her heart though.

"I insist! What kind of gentleman leaves a lady alone?" Battler proclaimed. " _You_? A _gentleman_?" Jessica burst into laughter.

Battler turned red, and a verbal war between the two ensued. Rosa couldn't help but start giggling like a child. She returned her focus to the cousins' arguments. Evidently, Battler had just made a perverted comment, as Jessica had her arms tightly wrapped across her chest, and her cheeks were slightly red.

"You're so vulgar! This is why Rosa oba-san doesn't want to spend time with you!" Jessica stuck out her tongue.

"Actually, Jessica-chan..." Rosa cut into their fight, still trying to smother her own childish giggles. "I wouldn't mind having a game of chess with Battler-kun."

"Yeah!" Battler cheered, grinning triumphantly at Jessica. "Well, I'll come along then, and make sure you beat Battler!" Jessica grinned at her aunt.

"Uu, Maria will support Mama! Uu!" Maria clapped and laughed. "Want to see Battler lose! Uu, uu!" She sang.

"That's quite unfair. If that's so, then I'll help Battler-kun." George pushed his glasses up the bridge of hise nose, smiling determinedly. Rosa laughed.

"Right, let's begin!" Battler declared, rushing back to the guesthouse to fetch a chessboard.

* * *

Kyrie was incredibly bored. She found the way her husband shamelessly asked his older brother for money disgraceful and tiring. She left him with Eva, Hideyoshi, Natsuhi, and Krauss to fight for the gold. Rosa was nowhere in sight. When she got up and left earlier, Kyrie was extremely tempted to follow her out. Not just because she was very tired of the squabbling, but also because perhaps she and Rosa could catch up, and speak over other matters besides the gold. Truth be told, she enjoyed spending time with Rosa. Over the years, she'd wanted to call Rosa and invite her out for lunch or something. However, she never did, for fear of interrupting her work. While her abuse of Maria was something Kyrie could not turn a blind eye to, she found that Rosa was actually quite a pleasant human to speak to, and sincerely did like her very much. Almost as though she liked Rosa much more than she liked Rudolf...

Loud laughter drifting up from the rose garden reached her ears and snapped Kyrie out of her reverie. Out of curiousity, Kyrie excused herself to go check on the children and left. Everyone else didn't even notice the laughter, though Rudolf gave her a nod as she left the room. She traced the source of the laughter all the way to the gazebo at the end of the garden. The loudest laughs were from Battler and Jessica. The soft, deeper chuckles had to be George. Random cries of "uu- uu-" were obviously courtesy of Maria. Then the one giggling softly, innocently and girlishly was...

All this time, whenever Kyrie saw Rosa, she was either frowning, or looked stressed. True, when they did talk, she did smile, but only rarely. However, here she was with other humans she barely spoke to, laughing so joyously. It made Kyrie jealous.

"I'm sorry, Rosa oba-san." Battler grinned, lifting a black chess piece off the board and moving it over to the other end..

"I did say I was terrible. I'm getting old, and my mind isn't as swift as it was..." Rosa laughed softly, pushing her brown hair back from her face.

"Shame on you for bullying your own aunt, Battler!" Jessica pulled a face at Battler.

"Uh, Jessica-chan, it was _you_ who suggested for Rosa oba-san to make that move..." George said gently. Jessica ignored him.

An amused expression plastered on her face, Kyrie walked in casually. "My, my. What's happening?" She said lightly.

"Kyrie nee-san!" Rosa said in surprise. "What's wrong? Have the other siblings called me back?" And just like that, the light illuminating her brown eyes began to fade.

Kyrie laughed lightly. "No, it's nothing like that. I just came to see the source of the noise, that's all." She explained. In truth, even if the siblings _had_ summoned her back, Kyrie would have fabricated a lie of some sort, just to see Rosa that happy again.

"Ahh, I see." She smiled politely, before returning her focus to the chess game with Battler.

Kyrie peeked over her shoulder. "My, my, looks like you're in quite a tight spot there." She mused. Rosa nodded and laughed. "Battler-kun and George-kun make a very strong team. Jessica-chan and I are no match for them." She frowned for a moment, thinking.

"How about this? I'll help you defeat Battler-kun, in exchange for one little thing, alright~?" Kyrie smiled brightly, a plan forming in her brain. Rosa and Jessica exchanged glances, before nodding.

"Alright, Battler-kun, I hope you won't get scared now~" Kyrie taunted jokingly. George and Battler just looked more determined than before. "Yeah! We won't lose!" Battler said confidently.

* * *

Half an hour later, the match had turned around completely. With Kyrie's help, Rosa had managed to see through all of Battler's strategies, and countered all of his moves despite the very limited amount of pieces she still had at her disposal. At long last, the match reached an end, with Rosa's team managing to pull off a spectacular checkmate against Battler's team. As Rosa pushed her last piece forward, Jessica let out a loud whoop of joy while Battler yelled in horror and put his head in his hands. "Yeah! We won!" Jessica yelled and laughed and cheered, while pulling faces at Battler. He groaned loudly.

"You sure _are_ taking this horribly, Battler-kun." Kyrie giggled.

"Dammit, one day I _will_ beat you, Kyrie-san!" Battler declared loudly.

"One day, Battler-kun, one day~" Kyrie teased patronizingly, smiling at Battler.

"It's starting to rain." George pointed out, effectively killing the joking vibe between Battler and his stepmother. Indeed, the wind had begun to howl, and little droplets of rain were falling from the sky.

"We better get back then. You all go on ahead. Rosa-san and I will clear up here." Kyrie said. Just then, a particularly strong gust of wind crashed into them, sending little Maria stumbling back a few steps. Her large ultramarine eyes widened, as though suddenly remembering something.

"Uu! Maria's rose!" She said, and dashed off towards the rose garden. "Rose?" Rosa said questioningly.

"It's a withered rose that we marked with a candy wrapper. Maria wants to take care of it till we leave." George explained. "She probably just wants to go check on it. We'll go help Maria find it." Battler said, and rushed off after his tiny cousin, Jessica and George following suit.

* * *

Rosa began to put away the pieces, and though her niece and nephews were more than capable of handling her stubborn daughter, a little part of her did worry about Maria. It must've shown on her face, as Kyrie gave her a warm smile, and reassured her that Battler and the rest would be able to calm Maria down.

"So, Rosa-san~" Kyrie said, after they'd put away all the pieces. "Huh? Oh, right, your payment!" A frown appeared on Rosa's face. "Don't worry, Rosa-san. I just want one small thing." Kyrie laughed, moving in closer to Rosa.

"Wh-what is it?" Rosa said nervously.

"A kiss." Kyrie replied.

"H-huh?" Rosa blinked. Maybe she'd misheard Kyrie, or...

"You heard me." Kyrie answered, her eyes focused on Rosa.

"A k-kiss? St-stop joking around, Kyrie nee-san..." Rosa turned red, stuttering nervously.

"But I'm serious, Rosa-san~" Kyrie stepped closer to her.

"I..." Rosa could hardly breathe. Truthfully, underneath her initial shock, there was a small part of her that did want to kiss Kyrie. Well, perhaps not that small.

Rosa leaned forward slowly, and shyly pressed her lips against Kyrie's quickly before drawing back. Her cheeks burned red, and she looked away, embarassment evident on her facial features.

"Oh? That's all?" Kyrie was rather disappointed, but decided to conceal it with an air of nonchalance. "I was rather hoping for something more like this." Before her confidence could ebb away, Kyrie leaned forward and kissed Rosa softly, stepping closer to her. One of her hands went to cup Rosa's cheek gently, the other resting on her shoulder. Time seemed to slow down. The upcoming storm, the yells of the cousins in the distance, the stray leaves and rose petals flying everywhere, none of that seemed to matter anymore.

Finally, Kyrie drew her lips from Rosa's slowly. Both of them stood in silence. Rosa was facing downward, her brown bangs covering her face. Kyrie wanted to speak, but she resisted the urge to. She'd laid down all her cards already, and now it was time for Rosa to show her hand. At last, Rosa looked up, a light dusting of red on her cheeks.

"I..." She began, taking a deep breath. She started her sentence again.

"I-if that is how helping me beat Battler-kun at chess would end, I... I wouldn't mind asking for your help again." Rosa smiled shyly, that one simple movement of her facial muscles managing to illuminate her entire face.

Kyrie couldn't resist. She moved forward, wrapped her arms around Rosa, and then kissed her again.


End file.
